Community

How does your community and family shape you?

We asked writers how their families and communities shaped them as writers. Some families think that writing is not a worthwhile career and fight against it, while others support each other through the entire journey. Sometimes, encouragement comes from outside the family, or a lack of community feeling makes someone want to write.

Vu Tran

“THAT is the one thing about COMMUNITY that I think is important to me – is that it reminds me WHO I AM.”

Edwidge Danticat

Jerome Walford

“It is a real GIFT, it is a real PRIVILEGE to be someone who has moved from one culture into another and to feel a certain level of COMFORT that you can stay there and still hold onto your own culture . . . while moving through a very different place.”